Title supplied by cataloger. Rolland Joseph 'Speedy' Curtis was born in Louisiana in 1922. After serving three years in the Marines during World War II, he and his wife, Gloria, relocated from New Orleans to Los Angeles in 1946. Curtis served four years with the Los Angeles Police Department, but resigned from the force in order to pursue both a Bachelor's and Master's degree from USC. He later became involved with city politics, as an associate of Sam Yorty, and later a field deputy to City Council Members Billy Mills and Tom Bradley. He was briefly director of the Model Cities program in 1973. Rolland J. Curtis died in his home in 1979, the victim of a homicide. An affordable housing complex on Exposition Blvd. near Vermont Ave. was named in his honor in 1981, along with a nearby street and park.; Bill Greene (1930-2002) was a freedom rider in the South, during the violent years of the Civil Rights Movement. Having served a prison sentence for his part in the demonstrations in Mississippi, he escaped from a Louisiana jail after another arrest and became a fugitive, shortly before becoming engaged to his wife. Greene began his career as the first African American clerk in the California Assembly. By 1967, he had succeeded Mervyn Dymally, taking over Dymally's Assembly seat, and again in 1975, claiming Dymally's recently vacated Senate seat.; In 1966, Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (1932-) became the first African American woman elected to the California Assembly, and in 1972, was the first woman elected to the House. She was also the first woman to chair the Congressional Black Caucus. In 1972, she became the first Congresswoman to give birth and be granted maternity leave while serving Congress.; Born in Trinidad, Mervyn Dymally (1926-2012) moved to the United States at the age of 19 and became a citizen in 1957. In 1962, he became the first foreign-born black lawmaker elected to the Assembly. In 1966, he was the first African American elected to the state Senate, and California's first African American Lieutenant Governor in 1974. Dymally had amazing staying power. In 2002, he found himself dissatisfied with the candidates for his original Assembly seat and chose to run again, winning back the seat he'd left, at the age of 76. Pictured joining hands at the testimonial dinner for Leon Ralph, the Democratic Assembly candidate in the 55th District are, from left, Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, Attorney Charles Lloyd, Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, Attorney General Tom Lynch, Leon Ralph, and Bill Greene, the Democratic Assembly candidate in the 53rd District, at the International Hotel on October 12, 1966. See images 00053366; 00120490; 00128578 through 00128580; 00138728 through 00138733 and 00138735 through 00138767 for additional photos in this series.
Type
image
Format
1 negative : safety ; 10 x 13 cm. Photographic safety negatives
Dymally, Mervyn M.,--1926-2012 Burke, Yvonne Braithwaite Lynch, Ralph, Leon D Greene, Bill,--1930-2002 International Hotel (Los Angeles, Calif.) Political candidates Attorneys general--California Lawyers County officials and employees Women in politics Politicians Legislators African American politicians African American women politicians African American legislators African American lawyers African American men Men Women Holding hands Los Angeles County (Calif.).--Board of Supervisors Westchester (Los Angeles, Calif.)
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